Why does the government shut down?

The Antideficiency Act, passed in 1870, forbids the government from incurring any expenses before Congress has approved them. Initially, it was passed to reign in presidents like Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War.

This blog is

Point of departure:

Mariana Valverde noted the "failure to analyze, and even to see, the legal dimensions of routine life" and "the areas of law that work without fanfare and without police" in Everyday Law on the Street: City Governance in an Age of Diversity. University of Chicago Press, 2012, 7-8.